The sudden and violent earthquake which struck Wenchuan in Sichuan Province has plunged China into an immense mourning and added to the already clouded tourism industry of 2008. What impacts will this earthquake bring to China’s travel industry?
As of late May, all travel activities inside Sichuan were in a virtual standstill as all resources were engaged in relief and rescue missions, said Zheng Jun, general manager of the Outbound Department of Comfort International Travel Services, Sichuan.
Generally speaking, restoration of inbound tourism still needs time because many infrastructures were damaged partly or completely during the earthquake. In addition, building of confidence of the overseas market on the destination needs time to recover. In comparison, Zheng believed that outbound tourism and domestic travel will recover sooner. It is estimated that by July or August this year, these two markets can hope to recover and return to normal. On May 20, just eight days after the earthquake, Comfort successfully organised an outbound group to Europe from Sichuan.
Zheng said that Chengdu, Sichuan’s capital, is China’s fourth largest outbound market. The earthquake had no major impact on Chengdu and most of the destinations and tourism spots in the
province such as Er’mei Mountain, Jiuzhai in A’ba region, Huanglong, and many hotel facilities. In the past, when a violent earthquake hit Yunnan province, tourism to Lijiang was also affected for some time but recovered soon. He said that construction efforts after the earthquake would surely bring enormous human, material and funds resources to this area.
Moreover, he believed that survivors of the earthquake, especially the middle class who lived through the unfortunate experience, would most likely reflect and regard life in a new way. Physical assets can be damaged and destroyed overnight so it is essential for people to pay more value to the quality of life. In a long run, this will promote the growth of the tourist market. However, he cited that people’s desire for travelling will not be regained easily for the time being as potential aftershocks and secondary damages still exist.
To a larger extent, although this earthquake struck Sichuan, its shock waves reverberated to a much broader range. Hu Xin, head of the communication
department of the Holiday Travel Agency of Shanghai Airlines, said that the earthquake has dealt a heavy blow to China’s domestic tourism market. Based on feedback, there had been sharp drops in bookings of package tours to Yunnan, Qingdao, Xiamen, Hainan and many other tourist cities. This was not due to safety considerations but to the gloomy mood of the people who, faced with such a devastating disaster in such a sad time, don’t have the desire to go out for enjoyment.
Hu believed that in the coming six months, China’s domestic tourism market will face a hard time as people still need time to adjust and recover from the emotional and psychological turmoil wrought by the natural disaster.
Zhao Dexiang, general manager of the Outbound Department of Shanghai China International Travel Service Co., Ltd, estimated that the number of outbound business groups would be reduced in the near future. As it was, many business groups have already cancelled their bookings a couple of weeks after the earthquake. As a result, travel agencies have suffered quite substantial economic losses.
It was reported that to meet the requirements of relief and rescue missions, the government has already issued a notice ordering all outbound trips to be cancelled that are organised by any party and governmental departments, ministries and commissions of the state, and foreign affairs offices at all levels as of May 20. Public expenditures of the central and government organs are to be cut by five percent from the budget to be used for disaster relief. This means that the number and scale of business travel groups from government departments will drop sharply this year. This has caused quite a few industrial people to feel worried about the prospects of the tourism market in the first half of 2008.
Wang Jin, head of the American Travel Department of Zhuyuan International Travel Agency, said that the tourism industry is very fragile and depends on a prosperous country and a happy and stable people. The overall situation of this year so far has not been so optimistic. The shocking stock market has already weakened people consumption desires.
The year commenced a heavy snow storm disaster. In April, there were the riots in Lhasa. The Olympics Games and the Paralympics Games will be held in August and September, respectively. All these factored in, Wang cited that the industry may have to wait until October for a full recovery of the overall tourism market.
She said that the flight market, which was previously anticipated to spur very strong demand due to Olympic Game, had already started to reduce ticker prices to stimulate the market. Meanwhile, everyone is waiting for that day when the earthquake aftershocks will finally cease.
